


Te Amo Etiam

by ITrustThyLove



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: And this is really not angst, F/M, Fluffyness?, I..., a tiny winy bit of h/c maybe but it's really not a lot, don't really know what else to tag it with, i'm gonna stop now, if anything; it's a bit silly, in any way, no matter what the summary says
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-13
Updated: 2014-06-13
Packaged: 2018-02-04 12:56:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1779898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ITrustThyLove/pseuds/ITrustThyLove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The aftermath of a case gone only slightly wrong...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Te Amo Etiam

**Author's Note:**

> For the wonderful ssadrblake on tumblr who makes the most amazing icons! Thank you so much! I hope you like your payment ;)
> 
> I went through 4 different ideas before I finally settled on this... Hopefully it isn't completely useless :P
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds or anything about it except my imagination.
> 
> This fic has been translated into German by the lovely Laura! Go check it out if you happen to know German ;)   
> http://www.fanfiktion.de/s/541ddeeb0002074f121ff40a/1/Te-amo-etiam

”You’ve got to stop doing this to me,” Alex sighed as she flumped down next to him on his ratty, old couch. He was sat with his right foot propped up on the coffee table, bag of ice pleasantly numbing the throbbing. Alex’s tone was light and teasing, but Reid detected the almost imperceptible notes of concern in her voice. 

”Sorry,” he mumbled sheepishly, shuffling a little closer even as pain shot through his ankle, making him hiss and halt his attempts. ”At least I didn’t get shot this time?” He turned his head and glanced up at Alex through his bangs, lightly biting his bottom lip, very well aware that it was a look she really couldn’t resist. 

”I don’t know, I think chasing after an unsub singlehandedly and falling down three flights of stairs is pretty bad too.” The twinkle in her eye and the slight upturn of her lips softened the blow, but the underlining worry lingered, and Spencer really couldn’t have that. Reaching up, Reid gently weaved his right hand through her silky, brown locks, gingerly pulling her face to his so he could lightly kiss her lips. 

“Sorry,” he mumbled. Leaning back, she pressed her forehead to Reid’s, her hand coming up to lightly rest over his heart, her eyes tightly shut. Silence reined for a moment before Alex softly whispered, “It’s okay.” Stroking her cheek with his thumb, Reid gently kissed each eyelid, hoping to eradicate some of the extra tightness he himself had put there. Silently, he vowed to be more careful. He wanted to say it, wanted to reassure her, but he also knew that even if he now had someone who would care about what happened to him, he would probably still make the same choice given the opportunity. Instead, he whispered: 

“Te amo…” Her eyes flew open, something close to wonder in those beautiful brown orbs, before shifting into joy, strong and fierce and wonderful. It was the same thing every time he said those two, simple words. They meant so much to her, he could tell, and it only made him want to do it more – every week, day, hour, minute – but he also didn’t want to lessen their meaning, somehow. So he restrained himself to special occasions. Though, with time, it was only becoming harder to contain them. The words always managed to make their way to his tongue. Silly Saturday nights. Lazy Sunday mornings. Hectic everyday evenings when they stopped for a moment – just a moment – to appreciate what they had. Right now, Alex lifted the hand not over his heart, to softly put it against his cheek. Emotion, fierce and insurmountable, shone brightly in her eyes, and Spencer basked in their light. 

“Te amo etiam…” A smile, small but unbreakable, was all he could think to do, before kissing her chastely again. Those few, simple, simple words, and his world exploded in a cascade of light and warmth and bliss, and if there really was a heaven then surely this was it. Alex smiled into the kiss, pressing in lightly and keeping him close for a long moment before pulling back, breaking the spell with a gorgeous smile. 

“Why don’t I go order us some takeout?” Alex asked. He nodded his agreement, a little dazed, and Alex pressed one last lingering kiss to his lips before standing up and walking towards the landline. “Is Chinese okay?” She called back to him. 

“Yes, please.” Spencer tuned out the sound of Alex ordering from their usual place in favour of shuffling into a more comfortable position on the couch. 

“Hey – do you remember how we met?” Alex asked, a bit randomly, as she sat back down. 

“Of course I do,” Reid responded immediately, reaching out and taking her hand. “I made a complete fool of myself.” He tried to stop it, but he really couldn’t help the blush that spread across his cheeks. Alex laughed out loud, light and free, and Spencer pouted at her for a moment before cracking up and joining in. 

“You really did, didn’t you?” There was a gleam of good humour sparkling in her eyes, and Reid was reminded yet again why he fell in love with this amazing woman. “I thought you were adorable.” He flushed again, pretty sure he was quite close to scarlet by now. 

“In my defence it was my first time giving a guest lecture, and I was very nervous. You can also be very intimidating when you want to.” She gave another chuckle and drew her left leg up under herself, turning her torso more directly towards him. 

“You started quoting my own book to my own class – who had all read it.”

“I was off to a rocky start!”

“To which are you referring? When you stumbled over your untied shoelaces in the threshold and did a very good impression of a windmill falling over? Or perhaps when you actually misspelled doctor?” 

“Well, in my defence I’d just been reading Fire and Nothing by Branko Miljković in the original Serbian, and that’s how you spell doctor in that language…” Not to say that it still wasn’t pretty embarrassing… He hadn’t misspelled a word in, well, ever. Alex huffed out an amused puff of air. 

“Of course you did…” Spencer grinned at her even as he blushed again. That really had been ridiculously atrocious… “But you did make a great comeback,” Alex conceded. “I mean, there was a reason I asked you to return for another lecture. Plus, you looked really adorable when flustered.” Spencer huffed and mock-glared at his girlfriend. 

“And is that why you asked me out for coffee?” The responding smirk could only be described as smug. 

“Good thing I did, though, wasn’t it? You never would’ve.” She was probably right, but Spencer had resolved to be more daring since they got together. “And you did have some very interesting points about quantitative linguistics and psycholinguistics.” 

“I could say the same thing about you; that was a very interesting conversation.”

“That lasted three hours…” she continued for him. A faraway look passed her beautiful features as she looked up and to the left. Suddenly, her eyes snapped back to his, mirth clearly evident. “Did you see the look the barista gave us?” Spencer furrowed his brow. 

“What barista?” As her laughter rang through the room, Reid unfocused his eyes and took himself back three years, two months and seven days. Enter coffee shop, talking, standing in line, talking, ordering from –

“Brunette, about 5 foot 6, brown eyes, tanned? Wearing a white polo under a dark green apron and a necklace with a silver cross hanging from it?”

“Should I be jealous that you remember her so well?” Alex teased, raising an eyebrow. Looking her dead in the eye, Spencer said:

“Your hair went a little past your shoulders in elegant curls, you were wearing mascara and black eyeliner as well as a little bit of rouge and subtle red lipstick. You had on stylish black dress trousers, a white shirt with grey pinstripes and a fitted dark grey suit jacket. You looked breath taking. The entire time there, I couldn’t take my eyes off you.” A soft, gentle smile settled on her face, and she leaned over to press a single, sweet kiss against his lips. 

“You’re incredible, you know that?” Spencer blushed and ducked his head. But he couldn’t quite help the pleased smile that grazed his lips. 

“Not anymore than you are.” They looked at each other for a long moment, both donning silly little grins, before Alex’s widened into something a little more amused. 

“But I take it you don’t remember the looks she kept shooting your way the entire time we were there?” Reid gave her a confused look. “You don’t, do you?” Alex grinned. “She was so obviously interested, I’m surprised that even you didn’t notice.” 

“I… I don’t really notice those kinds of thing.” 

“You don’t say,” she teased. “Seriously, I thought I’d have to make a billboard to make sure you got the message that I was interested.” Reid grinned ruefully. 

“Good thing I got the memo in the end, though, right?” Alex smiled softly, obviously thinking back to the night Spencer had fumblingly and nervously kissed her for the first time outside of an Italian Restaurant.

“Yeah…” she agreed. A comfortable silence lingered pleasantly in the air, before being interrupted by the shrill ringing of his doorbell. “I’ll get it,” Alex said, already getting up. Two minutes later, they were once again sitting side by side, eating takeout straight out of the box, Alex by chopsticks and Reid by fork. They ate in companionable silence for a moment, before a thought struck Reid out of the blue. 

“Do you think the team knows about us?” Alex got a thoughtful expression on her face as she finished her mouthful. 

“Rossi does,” she stated. “Or at least, he knows I’m with someone.” At Spencer’s questioning look, she quickly went on, an amused smile finding its way to her mouth. “He tried asking me out once, before I came to the unit, but I turned him down immediately.” Reid sputtered and almost choked on his mouthful of red curry chicken. “’Said I was in a committed relationship,” she continued. 

“Rossi asked you out?” Alex laughed, clearly amused. At Spencer or at Rossi, Spencer couldn’t tell, though. 

“Can you believe it?” She laughed some more as Reid simply blinked at her owlishly. “I didn’t say anything to you as we’d only been going out for a few months, and I didn’t want you to feel like I was trying to make you jealous.” 

“I… Wow.” 

“Yeah, I know,” Alex grinned. “But I do think Rossi suspects us. He’s never said anything, but I once caught him looking at us with this calculating look in his eyes.”

“He is the most seasoned profiler in the BAU… What about the others?” 

“Well, if they didn’t suspect before, they certainly will now.” Reid gave her a questioning look. “Well, I wasn’t exactly stealthy about my concern when you took a nose-dive down those stairs. And JJ was right behind me.” 

“Everyone would’ve been worried.”

“Yeah, but everybody probably wouldn’t have been quite so familiar in touching you and helping you up…” Well, she did have a point there. 

“…Would you mind?” The question burned his throat and he had to swallow it down. “If they found out, I mean.” Alex gave him a long, searching look, before smiling slightly, putting her takeout box on the coffee table and reaching out to take his hand. He clasped it lightly. 

“No. No, I wouldn’t.” And Spencer really couldn’t help the smile that made its way onto his face. Alex grinned back and then, after a long moment had passed, said: “Besides, it would also definitely make it easier next time you get injured.”

“Hey! Who says I’m going to get hurt again?” Reid felt righteous in his indignation, but really wasn’t too offended. He also had a hard time keeping the jest out of his voice. 

“Well, statistics, for one,” she joked, rolling her eyes. “And everybody know you’ve got a habit of getting into life or death situations.” 

”Hey!” he repeated. “This time it was only a sprained ankle,” he joked teasingly. Alex huffed out a low chuckle. 

”You are simultaneously the luckiest and unluckiest person I know.” 

”…Thank you? And I didn’t go in singlehandedly today, by the way; you were right behind me.” Alex smiled softly. 

“I know.” She leaned in and tenderly kissed his cheek. “I’ll always be right behind you…” There was a curious sense of heaviness, of gravity, to the words. Reid took them for what they were. 

A promise.

“And I you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Te Amo and Te Amo Etiam means I love you and I love you too in Latin (at least according to google translate)
> 
> I just thought it was fitting :P
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
